Gender Consultant

Background

Climate change presents the single biggest threat to sustainable development and is already having an unprecedented impact and is disproportionately burdening the poorest, marginalized and most vulnerable. Addressing climate change is one the key global challenges and priorities for UNDP. Working in over 170 countries and territories, UNDP is uniquely placed to work with all sectors of society to help mobilize the institutions and resources required to support countries implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the context of the Paris Agreement

Under the Paris Agreement, all countries are expected to submit increasingly ambitious NDCs (or national climate targets) every five years. The first opportunity to do so is in 2020. Launched in 2019, the Climate Promise is UNDP’s commitment to support at least 100 countries to enhance their NDCs by 2020, by working with countries to make their NDCs more technically robust and include new ways that governments can step up their climate actions, as well as finance these bold goals. Through the Climate Promise, UNDP will support countries in integrating gender equality considerations within the next generation of NDCs. UNDP study showed that during the initial discussion, only 40% of countries made at least one reference to gender equality or women’s empowerment in their I/NDCs. However, in 2016, more than 50% of countries surveyed said they intend to incorporate gender equality in their revised plans showcasing the national commitment towards strengthening the integration of gender in enhanced NDCs processes.

Addressing gender equality and women’s empowerment is a key aspect of UNDP’s approach to achieving its core strategic vision. Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment are seen as goals in their own right and are also central to the achievement of UNDP’s development mandate. UNDP is guided in its work by its Gender Equality Strategy (2018-2021) which details how UNDP works towards gender equality in each of the goals set out in the UNDP Strategic Plan 2018-2021.

In this regard, building on its previous support to better integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment into national climate targets, the UNDP RBAP Climate Promise team is supporting countries in Asia Pacific to strengthen the integration of gender in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) planning and implementation process through UNDP’s five service lines including;

1.  Build Political Will & Societal Ownership at National/Sub-National Levels;
2. Review, Align & Update/Enhance Current NDC Targets, Policies & Measures;
3. Incorporate Additional Sectors &/or GHGs;
4. Assess Costs & Investment Opportunities;
5. Monitor Progress & Strengthen Transparency.

Additionally, a specific three-pronged approach will also be utilized to strengthen climate solutions through a gender lens and will include supporting countries in;

1. Strengthening coordination mechanisms between and among gender, climate/environment and line ministries, developing institutional capacities at the horizontal and vertical levels on climate change and gender.
2. Integrating gender within the planning stages prior to implementation
3. Strengthening climate change policies through a gender lens

Given above, UNDP RBAP is recruiting an international consultant to conceptualize and lead a virtual regional forum on gender equality and climate action nexus to accelerate the implementation of the enhanced NDCs. The regional forum will involve 2 plenary sessions and 3 parallel sessions spread across three days, expecting up to 150 participants.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives of the Assignment:

The UNDP’s RBAP Climate Promise Team and Regional Gender Team require a Gender Consultant to conceptualize and lead a virtual regional forum on gender equality and climate action nexus to accelerate the implementation of the enhanced NDCs. This consultancy will support UNDP’s RBAP Climate Promise Team and Regional Gender Team for a regional forum consisting of 2 plenary sessions and 3 parallel side events spread across three days, expecting up to 150 participants. This virtual regional forum will enhance gender equality and climate action nexus in the lead up to the Asia-Pacific Climate Week and the COP 26 in United Kingdom and beyond.

 

Scope of Work:

Under the overall supervision of the Regional Gender Advisor Team Lead and Climate Promise Regional Focal Point, the consultant will work closely with UNDP Asia-Pacific’s Gender Team and Climate Promise’s Country Coordinator will be responsible for, but not limited to:

1. Technical support;
   1. Participate in meetings with the BRH climate promise and gender team to finalize the concept note for the forum with a focus on gender equality and climate change nexus.
   2. Conduct a review of UNDP Country Office (CO) Climate Promise workplans, CO websites and publications on gender and NDCs to assess how countries in the Asia Pacific are integrating gender equality into the NDCs processes and identify good practices that takes into account risk management, sustainability and innovation.
   3. Based on above, engage five COs to frame messages around gender equality and NDCs from their own country experience and draft session outlines for three parallel side events
   4. Finalize the forum programme including the outline of session objectives, potential speakers, moderators and discussion outline/guiding question ensuring gender is well integrated into the discussions around NDCs and its implementation.
   5. Support CO colleagues to present the forum to key national partners including the development of a briefing note/presentation on the forum and finalizing the forum pitch, to ensure full engagement of national partners as participants and speakers
2. Facilitation and discussions
   1. Take lead in following up and finalizing speakers and organizing briefing meetings with speakers and moderators
   2. Coordinate and lead collection of relevant forum documents/papers as required from speakers.
   3. Facilitate/co-facilitate as required during the forum
   4. Coordinate as required with the digital event management team to ensure smooth delivery of the forum.
   5. Organize and lead weekly meeting with BRH gender and climate promise teams on forum progress
3. Communications:
   1. Design and develop a communication plan including key messages, content to be rolled out in collaboration with the BRH communications team.
4. Post Forum Report:
   1. Draft a policy brief documenting good practises, challenges and lessons learned on integrating gender in NDCs processes in the Asia Pacific (to be disseminated to UNDP climate promise national partners).
   2. Share forum documents with all participants
5. Other task groups as deemed necessary and directly relevant for organization of this forum as assigned by UNDP.

 

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

Based on the aforementioned criterion of the tasks associated with this Terms of Reference, the consultant will be responsible for:

Deliverables	Estimated Duration to Complete	Target Due Dates	Review and Approvals Required
Output 1: Final regional forum concept note including the main theme, overall objectives and outline of plenary and side events	5 days	20 November 2020	The Regional Climate Promise Team and Gender Team
Output 2: Final forum programme including objectives, speakers, moderators and guiding questions for each session Coordinating with COs to engage national partners as potential speakers and participants Communication Plan	10 days	20 December 2020
Output 3: Session outline for the three parallel side events including final list of speakers, relevant papers and guiding questions Follow up and confirmation of speakers and moderators Briefing meeting with all speakers and moderators Coordination with the digital event management for smooth implementation of forum	8 days	30 January 2021
Output 4: Implementation of Forum as per the forum programme Forum facilitation/co-facilitation as required	2 days	20 February 2021
Output 5: A policy brief documenting good practises, challenges and lessons learned on integrating gender in NDC processes in the Asia Pacific (to be disseminated to UNDP climate promise national partners). Share forum documents with participants	5 days	26 February 2021
TOTAL	30 days

In general, UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Travel costs shall be reimbursed at actual but not exceeding the quotation from UNDP approved travel agent. The provided travel allowance shall not exceed UNDP DSA rates.

 

Institutional Arrangement:

The consultant will be under overall supervision of Asia-Pacific Regional Gender Equality Team Leader and Regional Climate Promise Focal Point. S/he will work closely with UNDP Asia-Pacific’s Gender Team and Climate Promise’s Country Coordinator and other staff involved in the UNDP Global Policy Network (GPN) team and UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub’s (BRH) Planet Team and UNDP Country Offices and relevant counterparts as appropriate.

 

Duration: 1 November 2020– 31 March 2021 (Up to 30 days)

 

Duty station: Home-based with no mission travels.

The Consultant will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment; The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own working station (i.e. laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer, specific software, etc.) and must have access to a reliable internet connection; Payments will be made upon submission of a certification of payment form and acceptance and confirmation by the Regional Focal Points of UNDP’s RBAP Climate Promise team on days worked and outputs delivered.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Communication:

• Communicate effectively in writing to a varied and broad audience in a simple and concise manner.

Professionalism

• Capable of working in a high pressure environment with sharp and frequent deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously;
• Excellent analytical and organizational skills.

Teamwork:

• Projects a positive image and is ready to take on a wide range of tasks;
• Focuses on results for the client;
• Welcomes constructive feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in sustainable development, environmental management, gender or development policy or other related expertise areas required.

Experience:

• At least 2 years of professional experience in gender equality/social-dimension and climate change policy discourse;
• Demonstrable professional experiences in supporting climate action and/or NDC processes in countries within Asia-Pacific region is an asset;
• Sound understanding of sustainable development, social dimension of environmental management issues, climate mitigation and adaptation, climate risks and impacts issues.
• Demonstrated experience in coordinating online events with experience of coordinating one online events

Skills:

• Ability to perform tasks in timely manner and under pressure, to tight deadlines.
• Ability to communicate verbally and in writing with a wide range of partners persuasively and collaboratively.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team seamlessly using a range of modern means of communication as required.
• Proficiency and experience with Microsoft Office software and applications;

Language:

• Excellent English communication skills

 

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, anticipated mission travel costs, living allowance and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. The review and approval of payments will be made by the assigned supervisor(s) within 14 days. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs as approved by supervisor(s) and as per below percentages:

Deliverables	Estimated Duration to Complete	Target Due Dates	Payment (% of total contract amount)	Review and Approvals Required
Output 1: Final regional forum concept note including the main theme, overall objectives and outline of plenary and side events	5 days	20 December 2020	45%	The Regional Climate Promise Team and Gender Team
Output 2: Final forum programme including objectives, speakers, moderators and guiding questions for each session Coordinating with COs to engage national partners as potential speakers and participants Communication Plan	10 days
Output 3: Session outline for the three parallel side events including final list of speakers, relevant papers and guiding questions Follow up and confirmation of  speakers and moderators Briefing meeting with all speakers and moderators Coordination with the digital event management to ensure smooth implementation of forum	8 days	26 February 2021	55%
Output 4: Implementation of Forum as per the forum programme Forum facilitation/co-facilitation as required	2 days
Output 5: A policy brief documenting good practises, challenges and lessons learned on integrating gender in NDC processes in the Asia Pacific (to be disseminated to UNDP climate promise national partners). Share forum documents with participants	5 days
TOTAL	30 days		100%

 

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer:

The following criteria will serve as basis for evaluating offers:

• Only those applications which are responsive and compliant will be evaluated;
• The technical criteria (education, experience, language) will be worth a maximum 100 points with a weightage of 70%;
• Technical criteria for evaluation (Max100 points);
  1. Criteria 1: Relevance in education background – Max 10 points;
  2. Criteria 2: Atleast two years experience working on gender equality/social-dimension and climate change policy discourse – Max 30 points;
  3. Criteria 3: •  Demonstrated experience in coordinating online events with experience of coordinating one online event Max 15 points;
  4. Criteria 4: Demonstrable professional experiences in supporting climate action and/or NDC process in countries within Asia-Pacific region – Max 30 points
  5. Criteria 5: Sound understanding of sustainable development, social dimension of environmental management issues, climate mitigation and adaptation, climate risks and impacts issues based on the submitted sample work on gender and climate change nexus and/or gender and NDCs – Max 15 points;
• For those passing technical evaluation above, offers will be evaluated per the Combined Scoring method:
  1. Technical (70%)
  2. Financial Evaluation (30%)

• Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.
• The financial proposal shall specify an all-inclusive daily fee (including number of anticipated working days and all foreseeable expenses to carry out the assignment); and
• Applicant receiving the Highest Combined Score and has accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions will be awarded the contract.

 

Documentation required:

Candidates wishing to be considered for this assignment are required to submit the following documents. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
2. Detailed Personal CV and/or P11, indicating all past experiences from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
3. Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a sample of written work on gender and climate change nexus and/or gender and NDCs;
4. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided.  If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

Incomplete proposals may not be considered.  The shortlisted candidates may be contacted and the successful candidate will be notified.

 

Annexes:

Annex I - TOR - Climate Promise Gender ConsultantAnnex II - General_Terms_and_Conditions_for_Contracts_Individual_ConsultantsAnnex III - Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and financial proposalAnnex_IV_P11 Form_for_ICs_optional

***All documents can be downloaded at: https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=71189

For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to procurement.th@undp.org under subject: JobAds 94537 - Gender Consultant